Season of Terror: The Espinosas in Central Colorado, March–October 1863

15. “Who Is There to Gather the History of This Wretch?”: The Espinosas Remembered

277 15 DOI: 10.5876/9781607322375.c15 “Who Is There to Gather the History of This Wretch?” The Espinosas Remembered The “Terrible Espinosas” were not soon forgotten. Like a recurring nightmare, the memory of their bloody onslaught came back again and again to the people of Colorado Territory who had suffered the contagion of dread the brothers and their nephew had unleashed. Butfearof onesortoranotherwasnotanunfamiliar sensation on the frontier—danger was endemic to the lives all frontiersmen led—and they had learned to combat it with a dry and quirky humor, as this item in the same edition of the Rocky Mountain News Weekly that reported the Espinosas’ attack on Philbrook and Dolores Sánches illustrates: A little guerrilla excitement obtained here a week or two ago, occasioned by some persons shooting rabbits near the place where Carter was killed last April, just as a timid gentleman from Mosquito was passing. He supposed the shots were fired at him, and ran to Fairplay, a distance of three miles, in about twenty minutes, where he reported having been fired at several times by a party of ten or fifteen guerrillas. All Fairplay patriotically turned out to exterminate the assassins, and a rather awkward explanation ensued on meeting the rabbit hunters, persons well known in the country. If you want a fight on your hands, say guerrilla to any one living in Fairplay.1 “who is there to gather the history of this wretch?” 278 Even at the height of terror in South Park, a Montgomery correspondent could submit the following item to the same newspaper shortly after Metcalf was providentially saved from death when a packet of papers in his breast pocket, including President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and some announcements by Congressional Delegate Hiram Pitt Bennett, turned away an Espinosa bullet: None stir abroad out of sight of their respective habitations, except in parties of three or more, and armed with double-barreled shot-guns, double shotted with “FFF Hazard” and No. 1 buck-shot. In addition to this, it is thought by many a matter of prudence to carry Bennett’s documents neatly folded in the breast pocket of his coat—as the latest “improved patent life preserver.” “Greenbacks” carried in the same manner would doubtless be as effective in checking the force of a bullet, and I would recommend all strangers desiring to visit this part of the mountains, to wear them in preference to the documents, as they could readily be made available for other purposes in case they were not needed as “breast-plates.”2 At nearly the same time, the Weekly Commonwealth described a humorous encounter also rooted in “the terror occasioned by the late murders,” this time at a ranch on the Platte River where two wayward Mormon travelers, hoping for a drink and directions to their destination, approached the front door, only to awaken an occupant who “hastily dressed, yelling at the top of his voice—‘Robbers, robbers; John, John, get your gun, there’s robbers around the house!’” Our Provos somewhat taken aback by this unlooked for reception, told him to shut up and give them a drink, to no purpose. Insider had got dressed and got his gun by this time and swore he would shoot the Provos if they attempted to open the door, sending John upstairs at the same time to fire out of the window. After another unsuccessful attempt to convince them of their peaceful intentions the Provos mounted their horses and proceeded up the road. They stopped a short distance from the house to fix their saddles, when our courageous ranchmen left the house and after warning them away fired their guns at them. Of course the shots went wide of the mark, and the Provos concluding it was a rather disagreeable vicinity left as soon as they could, amused, yet mad at their adventure.3 But with the passage of time the ravaging of the Espinosas began to take on a less risible aspect and dark thoughts of the season of dread the killers had “who is there to gather the history of this wretch?” 279 inflicted on the country prevailed. In the summer of 1864 a traveler in South Park found lurid reminders of “the horrid scenes enacted here by Espinosa, during the months of March, April and May, 1863” on all sides: We passed by the spot where Brinkley and Shoup were inhumanly...